Biographical Data :

Name :

Khalid Bin Mahfouz

Period :

1949 - 2009

Biographical detail :

Saudi Banker

The billionaire, Khalid bin Mahfouz, who paid $225m to settle charges of bank fraud in 1993 and later won a string of lawsuits in Britain against writers who had accused him of supporting terrorism typified Saudi Arabia’s super wealthy.

The magazine Arabian Business ranked him 24th in the list of the 50 richest Arabs, in 2008, with a fortune estimated at $3.3bn. Sheikh Mahfouz rose to prominence through his 30 per cent ownership in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International that shut down in 1991 after charges of financial irregularities.

After the September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington considerable suspicion fell on Sheikh Mahfouz’s charities as sources of financing for terrorism. Sheikh Mahfouz faced a barrage of accusations in books, newspapers and magazines that he and his family had financed terrorism. He vehemently denied those allegations, and repeatedly and often successfully pressed publications for corrections.

Saudi Arabia’s The National Commercial Bank, established in 1953, which Sheikh Mahfouz took over after his father died laid the financial foundation for Saudi Arabia to join the global financial scene when oil revenue soared.

In 1970s Sheikh Mahfouz lived in Houston and was involved in the banking community of Texas.